Conventionally, when manufacturing semiconductor components, flat panel displays, or the like, various kinds of processes such as cleaning, etching and plating are performed on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or a liquid crystal substrate by using a substrate processing apparatus.
As an example, a substrate processing apparatus that performs a plating process on a circuit pattern formed on a surface of a substrate includes a substrate processing unit that processes the substrate with a processing fluid (plating liquid); and a processing fluid supply unit that supplies the processing fluid heated to a preset temperature to the substrate processing unit. The processing fluid supply unit connects a storage tank that stores therein the processing fluid of a room temperature and the substrate processing unit with a supply line. A heater is provided at a portion of the supply line.
In this conventional substrate processing apparatus, the processing fluid of the room temperature stored in the storage tank is supplied to the substrate processing unit after heated to the preset temperature by the heater, and the substrate is processed in the substrate processing unit by using the processing fluid of the preset temperature (see, for example Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2013-010994
In the conventional substrate processing apparatus, however, when processing the substrate in the substrate processing unit, since the processing fluid is supplied to the substrate processing unit after heated to the preset temperature by the heater, it is difficult to promptly respond when a flow rate of the processing fluid used in the substrate processing unit is changed or when the processing fluid is supplied to the substrate processing unit after heated to the preset temperature depending on a flow rate of the processing fluid used in the substrate processing unit. In such cases, it is difficult to supply the processing fluid of the preset temperature to the substrate processing unit stably.
Further, in the conventional substrate processing apparatus, the processing fluid supply unit is connected to the substrate processing unit in one-to-one correspondence. Therefore, if the number of substrate processing units increases, a corresponding number of processing fluid supply units is required, resulting in scale-up of the substrate processing apparatus.